Strongman: Kenneth Davis Discusses His New Book

In this episode, Kenneth Davis will investigate the rise of five of the most ruthless dictators in modern history - Benito Mussolini, Adolf Hitler, Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong, and Saddam Hussein. While exploring these strongmen’s lives and the historical periods that shaped the leaders they became, Davis will illuminate common features in the “Strongman’s Playbook,” including propaganda, scapegoating enemies, extolling nationalism, and cultivating unquestioning loyalty among young people.
 
Davis makes the case that democracy does not die in darkness. Rather it is sometimes decapitated in broad daylight, with crowds cheering as the dangerous creep of authoritarianism takes place and freedoms are erased. He details the current and rising peril to democracy around the world. Strongman: The Rise of Five Dictators and the Fall of Democracy is available from Holt/Macmillan. The audio version is available from Penguin Random House. 
 
KENNETH C. DAVIS is best known as the New York Times bestselling author of Don’t Know Much About History, which was recently reissued with a new preface in a 30th anniversary edition. He is a frequent media guest and speaks widely to schools, libraries, and historical societies. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Washington Post and Smithsonian magazine. He has also been a guest on CBS This Morning and NPR and many regional public radio affiliates.